Comments on: Our Blind Spot: Creating a Shared UX Vision

By: Aaron Houssian

Aaron Houssian — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:34:48 +0000

I believe this is a key issue and as Steve says this is not a new one. How do we take a vision for an experienced and then design for such an experience?
I believe there are two main components to this issue: artefacts and actors. Artefacts (or artifacts if you prefer) are the “things” we create as designers. When these are used to communicate they become a kind of boundary object, but the problem is while a certain artefact may be great for a designer it may not be great for other parties. Actors are those people who are involved in bringing an experience to fruition. I think most of us recognize the age-old problem of not having the right people involved in a team consistently and then we end up “throwing things over fences” i.e. we’re done designing it, now you build it, or we’re done building it, now you sell it, or we’re done defining a market for it now you design it.
We’ve got to address both of these issues to make real improvement on this.

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Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:24:10 +0000

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By: Steve Baty

Steve Baty — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:50:38 +0000

Jeremy,

Is this really a blind spot for UX practitioners and projects? The lack of a shared vision certainly takes place; even frequently so; but this challenge has been discussed and addressed to varying degrees for nearly a decade. Videos, prototypes, and storyboards are common tools used to tell a story about the intended experience. There are others – equally or better suited to the task – all of which should not come as news to a UX practitioner. Especially not to those responsible for articulation a vision for the end experience.

Whilst I agree with the underlying point that a shared vision is important to the successful implementation of the design, blaming its absence on an ignorance of storytelling techniques seems a stretch. As a broad community storytelling and narrative have enjoyed a relatively high prominence for three years or more.

Nor do I think we need look to Agile methods to alleviate this problem. My understanding of the area – and I admit it isn’t deep – is that the work of envisioning and communicating the desired end point is done prior to an Agile approach being introduced. Collaboration: yes; participation: yes. A purposeful and concise use of documentation: certainly.

“The thing is these infrastructure builds form a very small proportion of today’s UX output” – I would also question the veracity of this statement. Again, my experience with the industry in Australia, US, Europe and Asia suggests that, for the vast majority of UX practitioners, technology-led, Web- or mobile-based projects are the norm; and designing for experiences in physical environments, for example, is the exception.

This is changing. And the wireframe and sitemap are certainly not appropriate artefacts for communicating, say, the experience of a face-to-face interaction. But then, they’re not appropriate for communicating any part of that interaction anyway. We do need different methods of articulating the design for these experiences, but those methods are already in widespread use, and I certainly endorse the view that UX practitioners should be familiar with them.

Steve